Information Technology: Then and Now

Over the break, I went into my father's office before we went out for lunch and saw that he still has his electric typewriter on his desk. I was quite surprised to see him still using a typewriter because his business has been shifting towards a digital workspace, he still uses his typewriter and fax machine regularly. He used to be entirely reliant on the typewriter to write invoices and then fax them to customers, but now he is working towards developing a method to email invoices online and cut down on paper. It is interesting to see how his business is currently a hybrid of old and new information technologies. For certain customers, they prefer an invoice attached to an email whereas older companies managed by older people may prefer to have a hard copy either given to them in meetings or faxed to their office. I tried typing on the the typewriter and it is harder than I thought because there is little room for error. If you make a mistake, you have to go back to the mistake, white out the incorrect letter or word, and then retype over it. It is a cumbersome process and makes me appreciate the computer and word processor. The word processor on computers can pick on errors and correct them automatically. Even if they do not correct errors, one can just simply move the cursor to the error and correct it. Documents are saved digitally and can be found easily on a computer.Even with the user-friendliness of the computer, my father struggles with the computer the same way I do with the typewriter. It is interesting to see how mastery of technology changes as it evolves throughout time and how it is used by businesses.